Mail Online looking at non-English versions, says its publisher

Martin Clarke, the publisher of Mail Online, the online arm of British newspaper the Daily Mail, has confirmed to ITProPortal.com that the site is considering non-English versions. However, he also said that any plans were still at an early stage, before adding that he “won’t deny that they’re considering it”. Mail Online has been producing an Indian Edition of the paper, in a joint venture with India Today, since 2007, alongside its US Edition.

The site is already ahead of the Guardian and the New York Times as the world’s largest online newspaper website but Clarke, who was speaking at the ad:tech London conference earlier today, was adamant that mobile would generate up to half of the site’s traffic by 2017.

He also revealed that the average weekday direct daily visitors to the home page and apps stood at 2.7 million in total, with around a third of the figure coming from mobile devices. This shows, in Clarke's own words, that this segment has “massive potential”.

Mail Online, which is rumoured to have hit the 100 million unique browsers mark in August thanks to the London Olympics, took the skills of national newspapers online, producing “great, engaging, fun and sticky” content according to Clarke. That’s up from April 2011's 64 million.

He also pointed to the fact that one of the reasons for the site’s success is the use of very long page; something that was almost accidentally discovered rather than carefully planned for. The Mail Online publishes nearly 1,100 content pieces every week.

Clarke also confirmed that everything produced in the US for an American audience was more popular in the rest of the world, not just in the US.

When probed during a short Q&A session on Mail Online’s mobile ambitions, he hinted that the next iteration of the site would have mobile at its heart, and was quick to point out that advertisers had not woken up to its potential, especially with regards to registration, geo-targeting etc.